Sherlock Holmes

Good acting, thin plot. (When will we get beyond the need to pay homage to The DaVinci Code?) No matter, it's satisfying to look at Robert Downey, Jr. for two hours.

Recommended with caveats.

Up in the Air

This movie received great reviews, and yet I had little hope for what could easily have been a romantic comedy with a redemptive ending. (I know, that's what we all hope for, but I seldom see it happen. Hence I find those movies very annoying.) I primarily went because I was interested in how the film handled the newly unemployed. Well, as I expected, those sequences were extraordinarily moving. As I didn't expect, the romantic comedy was much darker than I'd anticipated--and not at all redemptive. The banter between frequent flyers Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) and Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga) wittily captures the parallels between casual sex and the perks doled out to business travelers.

Recommend.

A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams

For nearly sixty years, Marlon Brando's interpretation of Stanley Kowalski has cast a long shadow on how Americans perceive Williams' play. In fact, though Blanche Dubois is clearly the central character, it's often Brando's brooding Stanley that dominates the our memories of the play. So when a company of Australian actors tackle the play, they not only have to prove their qualifications but must return Blanche to her central role.

The Sydney Theatre Company, under the direction of Liv Ullmann, managed both in ways I'd not expected. Cate Blanchett brings much to the role, but it's the small things (like repeatedly putting on and taking off her eyeglasses) that maintain the tension between Blanche's strength and her fragility. The rest of the cast were also very strong, especially Robin McLeavy as Stella and Joel Edgerton as Stanley, who provide the necessary sexual energy that makes it clear why she's with him.

Highly recommend.

Precious: Based on the novel "Push" by Sapphire (Lee Daniels)

This unrelenting movie tells a bleakly hopeful story via amazing performances by Mo'Nique, Mariah Carey, and Gabourey Sidibe.

Highly recommended.

The Blind Side, John Lee Hancock

Good feel-good movie based on a true story. (I thought the New York Times Magazine article was more interesting.)

Recommend.

Yale Camerata

Every December, the Yale Camerata presents an Advent Concert in Battell Chapel. It may fall right in the midst of the busiest time of the year for us, and yet I never regret taking the time out for this delicious indulgence. Not only am I assured that the music will be impeccably performed, but I know I'll be knocked over by a work or two totally new to me.

On the face of it, this year's performance seemed rather uneventful: Orlando di Lasso's motet Videntes stellam magi, selections from Felix Mendelssohn's incomplete oratorio Die Geburt Christi, Joseph Haydn's Missa in tempore belli, Bach's "Dona nobis pacem" from his Mass in B minor, and the Camerata's standard sing along (and the only sing along I really enjoy), "See, amid the winter's snow." All were fine works of music impeccably performed.

Quietly poised in the midst of these was Bohuslav Martinu's Nonet from 1959. Both composer and composed were unknown to me. It was love with the first note, and I look forward to listening to more of his work. I'm intrigued by his ability to bring together what I consider the best sensibilities of twentieth-century composition.

Highly recommended.

R&J, Joe Calarco adaptation of Shakespeare

Mike saw the original New York production of R&J, and he was eager for me to see it with him. It is built around the conceit of a four students at a Catholic boys' school reading--and acting out--Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The homoeroticism implicit in any all-male production gets foregrounded. Excellent acting and production.

Highly recommended.